


Rose Petal in a Highstorm

by Mistfather



Series: RWBY Cosmere [1]
Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, RWBY, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: (also there is minimal shipping), (in the fashion of Brandon Sanderson I'm leaving a little surprise at the end), (probably), (unless there's some kind of massive conspiracy I've missed out on, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Hoid is where he shouldn't be (now with actual consequences), Post-Volume 4 (RWBY), Post-Words of Radiance, RWBY/Stormlight Archive Crossover, these universes will stay seperate otherwise)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2018-12-07 23:50:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11634525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistfather/pseuds/Mistfather
Summary: Team RWBY is back together and taking down the violent faction of the White Fang, but when a stranger with a history of meddling gets caught and drags them, the remains of team JNPR, and Qrow into a different world, one dominated by clockwork hurricanes and demons who control lightning, how will they find a way to each-other, much less a way back. Meanwhile, Kaladin Stormblessed, Lift, the Kholin princes, and Jasnah are all stuck with their own travelers, and must band together to survive the new Desolation.





	1. How it Begins

Hoid always found this little speck in the Cosmere… exciting, which was a mixed blessing for his line of work. Especially here. Better scientists than him would investigate the place, undoubtedly, but as far as he knew, it was just some property of the opposing Shards that drove the planet’s living things to extremes. The forms of Investiture were wild, the ecosystems were insanely diverse, and even the cognitive realm was so turbulent that getting to the planet was less like swimming to the right point and more like grabbing it as he plummeted down a waterfall of thoughts. As he rolled to a stop in the grove that acted as an anchoring point, got back up, and ran a quick rundown of everything he had. _Vials, extra cloth, my sword, my bracers…_ a part of him nagged that he was missing something, but he couldn’t figure it out, and didn’t want to waste the brainpower. He glanced around, tapping a tinmind to get a clearer look in the dark. The grove was different from how he remembered it- it had been relatively eighty years, after all, and things were far from completely stable when he left- but the general feeling of the place was the same. The perpendicularity hadn’t moved, which meant he was likely not too far from one of the massive supercities. His enhanced hearing picked up a crashing sound in the trees, and he turned to investigate, placing a hand on his sword, he stepped closer to the sound, that nagging feeling still pulling at him. As he drew to a stop, and that feeling grew worse up until it hit him. Not the thing he’d forgotten, the man in the mask.

Not looking, the man ran out of the bushes and slammed directly into Hoid, mask sliding off and into the forest. Their eyes met, one set wide with panic, the other just confused. They both scrambled to their feet, the other running off in a random direction as Hoid just watched. _My chromiummind!_ He realized. _I forgot to stop storing luck._ As he shut off the flow of luck and tried to tap his hearing more, insuring against more collisions, just in time to hear the man’s pursuer.

 

Ruby Rose shot through the forests of Mistral. One of the White Fang soldiers had fled this direction during the raid and, well, she’d rather not leave loose ends anymore. Even under the serious mood the situation called for, however, she still felt the rush of excitement. Her team was back. _Team RWBY is back together!_ She reached a clearing, stopping just short of a man in white. He was tall, like Qrow, with bony features, blue eyes, and stunningly white hair, despite looking far too young for it to grey. “Um, hi!” she said, realizing how strange the situation looked.

He blinked and , after a pause, smiled. “Hello. Can you help me? I, uh, seem to be a bit lost.”

She glanced around. The soldier had gone, and, while Ren or Blake could probably track him, she had no idea where. And her team would still need her. “Sure, but, this might be little awkward. I'm going to have to carry you.”

 

Hoid cocked his head to the side. “Carry m… How would-?”

“I'm a Huntress.” The little girl said that with weight, like it explained everything. Not wanting to blow his cover, he decided to go with it, but heightened his mental speed as he spoke. _Is that like the Aura Wielders from last time? She doesn't match what they looked like, and she wasn't one of their Maidens or anything with that much Investiture. Maybe her magic was like an Elsecaller or-_

He never finished that thought, as the little girl picked him up and activated her semblance. Hoid was not proud of his scream, but, really, it was expected when you were suddenly flying like an arrow through a forest. After a few minutes, the tree line broke and they suddenly stopped. Hoid stumbled forward a bit as he was let go, but quickly regained his composure. He was about to apologize, but another voice called out.

“Ruby!” A muscular blonde was running up to them, coattails and curly hair trailing behi-

Her arm. That was not armor. That was a… that was a robotic prosthetic. Either that girl had a very convenient semblance or, if the subtly whirring motors were anything to go by, technology had improved a lot since he had been here last. The blonde stopped just short of the smaller girl- Ruby- and began an informal report. “Blake's team has the building locked down, Weiss is holding their bullheads, and JNPR is talking to the local police.” Hoid twitched at that. She's said it like a single word, but he'd heard the spelling as just letters. An anagram? The blonde looked over to him. “Who's the guy?”

Ruby nodded to all of these. “Help Blake and Sun hold the warehouse while their troops sneak off before the police get there. I'll go see if Weiss needs any help. Oh, and this is…” she paused, then turned to the man she'd brought, a little embarrassed at the mistake. “I'm sorry, I never asked, what's your name?”

“Hoid,” he said then, probably seeing the confusion on her face, continued. “Gainsboro. Hoid Gainsboro.”

“Ah, thanks. I'm Ruby Rose, and this is  my sister, Yang. Could you go with her? I'll need to get to the dock's LZ and I… don't think you'll like how fast I'll have to get there.”

Hoid faked a small blush, then responded, stepping a bit closer to the blonde- Yang. “I'll go with her, thanks.” Ruby smiled, then shot off again, small rose petals twirling in the air behind her. After they'd started walking, Yang snickered.

“She carried you here, didn't she?”

Hoid gave a sharp glare to the blonde, and met mirthful lavender eyes. “It's okay,” she said, chuckling. “Everyone freaks out the first time.”

“How does she even…” Hoid left the question to hang, and Yang nodded.

“She's tried explaining it, but once she gets into rocket physics, it gets a bit hard to follow.” Yang stopped at a door, then knocked hard on it. “Sun, it's Yang, let me in!”

“Password?” A muffled voice came through the door.

“I can break the door down easy, you know.”

“... Good point.” The door unlocked, and Yang reached for the knob, but paused.

“Don't freak out, okay? I know they look like… well, they are, but they're also the good guys, okay?” The look she gave him hinted at a lot, some of it personal. Hoid quietly nodded, wondering what the whole story was, as she pushed open the door and greeted almost a dozen snarling masks.

“... Hey!” A single figure with pale blond hair and a monkey tail smiled and waved. Apparently all of these masked people were Faunus- a native species parallel to humanity. If he'd been more of a researcher, Hoid might've considered the implications before a single voice began barking out orders. Stepping into the now bustling warehouse, he could see its source as a woman in a white coat and high boots.

“Sun, take Azure Team and double check the prisoner's cuffs. Greenfell, prepare the escape route with Bisque Team. We'll meet up at Point Rackley in the morning to debrief.” The woman met Hoid's eyes, gold glinting over cobalt. “Who are you?”

Hoid turned to find Yang had left to help secure a smaller group of unmasked Faunus, then turned back to the Faunus leader. “Gainsboro. Ruby brought me into this.” He paused, thinking over a new idea before deciding to go with it. “This is going to sound somewhat odd, but,” he took a breath. “What year is it?”

She told him the date.

 _80 years… Okay, not bad._ “Ah. Right. Thank you. I'm sorry, but I was a bit lost when you guys showed up

With a slightly perplexed glance, she gave up on figuring him out and decided to just keep him out of trouble. “Stay here,” she ordered, voice tense and a little hoarse. “And try not to start anything. We’ll have someone take you to Haven for the night, then someone can bring you to Mistral.”

“Thank you.” He might not have put enough relief in his voice, but no one noticed. He turned again to ask the woman her name, but she was already gone.

* * *

 

Her name was Blake and, on the airship back, Ruby introduced him to her and the rest. Next to him sat Weiss, a girl who had a bit more than a striking resemblance to himself and rounded out Ruby's Team RWBY (which would have definitely been confusing for anyone else). On his other side sat a quiet man named Ren and across from him were Ren's bubbly partner Nora and Jaune, who led Team JNPR. The acronyms, Jaune's somber attitude, and the extra seat where Hoid sat told him enough.

“If you don't mind,” Ren asked in a voice that shouldn't have been that quiet _and_ that well heard, “I'm curious about what your semblance is.” The kid could see Investiture, like a well-trained Invested. That in and of itself was impressive. _What else can he do_?

“It's not much!” He shouted over the din of the airship. “I can hear spelling and grammar!”

Nora frowned at that. “What happens when you don't know the language?”

Hoid shrugged. He'd never encountered that problem before, for different reasons than they thought, however. “Hasn’t happened yet.”

She nodded, but still had a question on her tongue. “You and Weiss look a lot alike. Are you two..?”

“No relation.” both he and Weiss cut the girl off, earning a look or two from the other occupants.

Their pilot’s- an actual relative of Weiss’s named Winter- voice cut in from the front seat. “We’re starting to land on Haven’s helipad. Qrow and Oscar are meeting us on the platform, so be ready to explain why you picked up another stray.”

“Don’t worry, Winter,” Ruby assured. “I’m sure It’ll be fine.” As she finished her sentence, the heavy thud of the landing gears and slowly dying engines gave them the cue to get out. Hoid let the teams of Hunters go first, then stepped out as Winter finished with her checklist. He glanced around the flat concrete field, clearly meant to hold an assortment of aircraft, but currently being populated by a small boy and a man Hoid’s own height. He walked forward to greet them.

 

Oscar felt something nag him about their visitor. It wasn’t his appearance, even if he did seem to prefer more bland clothing than most, but rather the familiarity of the man. He pushed into his mind, feeling for the familiar presence of Ozpin and his memories, before everything went dark.

 

> _He stood in a red sea of sand, stormclouds hanging overhead. “You had to do it, didn’t you?” he accused the man behind him, who, unlike his usual self, was as serious as the grave._
> 
> _“I needed them, Oz. I needed to make sure neither of the Brothers could take the relics for themselves. You needed them, too.” He turned to face the blue eyed man, raising the glass sphere in his hands. His crown, old and simple, made its weight known. Had he ever really felt that weight before now? He didn’t care. This Grimmspawn would pay for what he’d made him do. An actual flash of fear crossed Hoid’s face before he spoke. “It was your choice, Oz! I didn't make you! I gave you the choice and you knew what would happen!”_
> 
> _He stopped just short._ Damn you, Hoid _. The sound of a camel running caught his attention, and he turned to see a Vacuon messenger jump off and drop to her knees. “Your Majesty,” the woman began, “Emperor Chang, King Glas, they've surrendered.”_
> 
> _“Surrendered what?” Oz asked. The war couldn't go on like this for long, and both Mantle and Mistral’s rulers knew this._
> 
> _“Everything!” There was joy in the woman's voice. Did she have a husband or wife? Children they took care of at home? Maybe she was just glad the bloodshed had ended. “We've won, Your Majesty! It's over!”_
> 
> _It was over. The entire war, millions dead, entire villages… it was over? Oz, despite everything, let out a small chuckle._ It was only beginning. _“Have the other kingdom heads meet me, and we'll begin discussing the treaty.”_
> 
> _“Sir,” the messenger rose, a slight fervor in her eyes. “There are none. Glas, Chang, they've both given you their thrones. Even Premier Tezca has pledged allegiance. The soldiers are calling you the Warrior King. The King of Kings, even._
> 
> _A fear knotted itself in Oz’s stomach. That much power, that much_ choice _… he couldn't. Not after this. He'd have to fix things for now, of course, but not after. “Very well. Have the_ former _kingdom heads sent to my tent, and I'll negotiate a treaty.”_
> 
> _“Yes, Your Majesty.” The messenger left hurriedly, and Hoid stood beside the silvery-haired man._
> 
> _“You can’t take them,” Oz warned, but Hoid agreed completely._
> 
> _“They’re too tied to this planet, and even one of them is too big for me to bring everywhere.” He seemed to hold something back, but changed the subject before Oz could ask. “What are you going to do with them? If just one could do this, what will all of them do together?”_
> 
> _“No one will ever find that out. I’m not letting this one out of my sight.” He stared at the milky crystal ball, rolling it in his hand. “But I’m never letting any of them be used again. I’ll bury them with every ounce of power I have. And I now have a lot of it.”_
> 
> _Hoid chuckled, his voice taking on a dark, doom-filled tone. “Hail Ozymandias.” The thunderheads broke over the soaked sands, and rain mixed with blood. “King of Kings. Look upon his works, you mighty, and despair.”_

Oscar came to with his hands wrapped around the stranger's throat. Most of him was horrified enough to let go, but a part of him still seethed with that ancient fury. _That_ , Ozpin said, _was not pleasant_. Oscar pushed himself off of him, and Hoid dusted off his cloak, confused as hell as to why this child had tried to kill him. Qrow and the young teams were backed away, even Winter noticing what was going on and prepared to intervene.

The boy still seemed furious to Hoid, as if he was barely under control. _Well, it’s not like he can..._ Hoid grew cold as he felt that familiar pull in the cognitive realm. In the hurricane that was Remnant, it was hard to make out, but once he’d found it, it was unmistakable. The last time he’d been here, he’d convinced a friend to slaughter an army with a single piece of a Shard’s power. Right now, that very relic was on his attempted murderer’s side.

He acted on instinct, grabbing the relic and the attached handle, and throwing it. All nine others nearby dove at him. Shoving the boy into one, he ignored the rest and opened himself once more to the torrent of the planet’s cognitive realm.

And eight people were swept away with him.


	2. The First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby Rose ends up in a strange place. She rolls with it.

 

Ruby Rose awoke to a headache, distant thunder, and an interesting view, once she stood up to see it. She was standing on top of a hill of sorts on a small platform of stone. Mere feet from her, waist-high grass blew in a gentle breeze, and a wall of storm clouds drifted away to the side. Behind her, a river cut through the dale and a nearby village with the strangest triangular houses. Some of the houses had been torn through, and flashes of red flickered between them. _Bandits? Grimm?_ The smoke she saw and sounds of conflict told her enough: trouble. Trouble that they’d need a Hunter for.

Ruby pulled out her Crescent Rose, stepped forward- and stopped. The grass in front of her had shrunken down into the porous rock she’d mistaken for a platform. It startled her, but she pushed it out of her mind. Right now, she needed to focus on the task at hand, and question the weird scaredy-grass later. She bolted down to the village, Crescent Rose at the ready and aura at full strength, meeting a jarring sight. People covered in dried blood beginning to circle a young man with a spear. _No, not blood, or not only blood. Their skin and armor is splattered with some kind of red paint and… are those electric sparks?_ Ruby edged closer, hiding in the shadow of one of the broken houses, watching the man with the spear eye the painted people from behind meager cover, then dive for the enemy between himself and Ruby. His spear seemed to pass through the red-splattered figure’s neck harmlessly, until they collapsed to the ground. _Electrified blunt-blade? I guess that’s effective for whoever these are. Is he the closest thing to local police?_ He used his momentum to roll, ducking under a bolt of red lightning, and slip into the same shadowed recess where she herself hid. Their eyes met, and the spearman tensed.

He urgently whispered to her in an unknown, vaguely melodic language, gesturing for her to get to cover. “I’m a Hunter,” she whispered back. “I can help.” When his expression indicated he understood as much as she had, she simply hefted up Crescent Rose, catching his eye on the massive mechanical scythe/sniper rifle. He continued to stare, then just shook his head, muttered something, and turned back to their opponents.

They were down to two, each with electricity crackling in their hands and locking their eyes onto the duo. Ruby made a dive for the one further away, hitting them in the knees with the blunted back of her scythe. Rather than the dull resistance of aura, she saw the scythe double the figure over, bending their legs in a broken way and flipping them to the ground. She stopped, staring as they tried to get back up. _That… that wasn’t supposed to… their aura was supposed to… oh God they don’t have-_

A bolt of pain shot through her back. Pain filled her, and she heard her own voice cry out. She rolled over- _when did I fall over?_ And turned to see the other red-splattered figure. Grimm eyes burned in their face, red lightning flickering in their fingers. She couldn’t take that again. Most of her aura had gone to just surviving one shot, a second would kill her. As she scrambled for an idea, the same silvery spear seemed to form from the figure’s chest, their face contorting, then slacking as their burning eyes began to smoke. They dropped to the ground, completely still, and the spearman’s scrawny frame stood behind them, fear becoming relief as he met her eyes. He said something else in his language, then offered her a hand.

 

 

Kaladin helped the small Shin woman up, meeting her eyes. A reflecting silver showed his own face, and made a part of him shiver. He’d never seen that color before- grey yes, but this was… polished, like a brightlord’s blade, and it was both entrancing and discomforting. Seeing as talking wasn’t getting anywhere, he walked over and motioned to the body of the remaining Voidbringer; the one with the broken legs. Even now, they were starting to stand up, whatever powers the Everstorm had had on them giving them a slower version of the Knights Radiant’s healing. The woman creeped up alongside him, bizarre weapon (was it even a shardblade? It didn’t act like one) in hand, questioning look on her face as she asked what sounded like a question in the strange uneven tongue of hers. He pointed out the bolts of red lightning along their knees, then hefted Syl in a cutting motion towards it’s head. She seemed to understand, looking horrified. It took her a minute to assess the situation, realize what she needed to do, then set her resolve. The blade collapsed inward as the end of the weapon aimed towards the Voidbringer’s head. They lifted a hand, then jerked as what sounded like a thunderclap shook the town, and a small mark showed on the back of their head. Syl turned back from her blade form and stared at her.

“What was that?” she whispered, the woman seeing her and staring back. “That was…” she faded out, mute in confusion.

“Is she a Dustbringer?” Kal asked. Syl just shook her head.

“That didn’t feel like a Surge. Too… cold. That was something else. She’s something else?”

He looked at her. She was small, even by non-Alethi standards, with a torn, ragged cloak over bizarrely styled clothes with, he noted, a complete lack of cover for her safehand. _I should probably explain that to her before we meet anyone else. Someone not used to seeing it like a trained physician would… react poorly._ “Should we be worried about her? I recall Shin not putting a lot of value in their fighters.”

“She’s not Shin,” Syl responded, staying still- an oddity for her- and staring at the warrior as she checked a small glass slate. “She doesn’t feel like anything from here. Too… Swirly.”

“Swirly?”

“It’s not my fault you don’t have a good word for it,” she huffed. “She’s pushing at Shadesmar a like a tiny highstorm, but it’s not energy or rain, it’s feeling. Positive and negative emotions…” Syl trailed off, then zipped in front of her, staring into her silver eyes.

 

 

“Positive and negative” the little spirit whispered, eyes wide. Ruby took a step back. _First human-Grimm, and then this? What is going on?_ “You have the powers of Positive and Negative. Cotivan and Seritor, Light and Dark, the Brothers.”

Ruby stared at the spirit. “The Brothers?” Qrow had told her their story. Ozpin had told him it was true, that two gods had created life, the Grimm, and Humanity. The older Brother of Light, and the younger Brother of Darkness. “What about them?”

She blinked, then smiled at her. “My father was a good friend of theirs.” The spirit gave a short bow, turning to point out her towering companion. “I’m Syl, and Mr. Grumpy is Kaladin.”

She stared. A tiny blue spirit had claimed her father was friends with gods. Supposedly real gods. “Ruby. Ruby Rose.”

Syl smiled. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ruby. You are a very long way from home, and I have no idea how.”

Ruby stared at her. That seemed somewhat obvious to her, as she’d never heard anything like Kal’s language, but why would that specific information get her recognized here? Kal called out something to the both of them, pointing downriver, opposite the direction the storm had been going. Syl looked at Ruby and turned a level of serious once again. “We need to hurry to Kal’s home in order to stop more of those things from destroying it. Can you keep up with us running there? I don’t think we can slow down if you can’t.”

Ruby smiled. “My semblance is a high-velocity speed boost. I can keep up if you need.”

“Semblance? Like a Surge?”

“…We’re going to have a lot to talk about, aren’t we?”

* * *

Ruby chewed her lip, following Kaladin. “So, you can fly?”

Syl translated, and Kal, still stitching her a glove from her cape, shrugged. “Not exactly. I… can choose the direction I fall. I have to ‘lash’ myself in a direction, then fall that way. And I need stormlight to do it. What about you?” he turned, dark brown eyes curious for once. “You seem to sort of throw yourself. How does that work?”

“That’s… a little harder to explain. Basically, like Stormlight, I can consume some of my Aura to create propulsion and shoot myself in different directions, or use a steady amount to hold myself in place on a wall, but I don’t need outside forces, just a little time to build up my own energy.” Syl gave a comment in Kal’s language that sounded like an “I told you so” _However,_ she thought, _My Aura does have an effect when I use it. Sorta like stormlight has, I think._ “I can also use Aura as armor, or patch up some minor cuts. Nothing fancy.”

“Ah.”

They walked on in silence for a few more minutes. Eventually, Ruby had a question to break the silence. “What were those things?”

“The Voidbringers?” She nodded. “They’re… Well, the Everstorm, with the red lightning? It’s not natural. Or, at least, not supposed to be. It was made by this people, the Parshendi, after something happened to them. They’d had the red-mottled skin before, and the bone armor, but the lightning…” Syl stopped, shivering.

“Voidspren,” she said. Her voice was uncharacteristically hard “pieces of Evil Himself. They kill and feed and control their Bonded, like some kind of…” she stopped, then curled against Kaladin’s shoulder. He spoke to her for a minute before the conversation began again.

“The storm has been effecting Parshmen, a distant cousin to the Parshendi, and turning them into… that. They can throw lightning, regenerate unless killed, and… I don’t even know what else.” Kal shook his head, then eyed her. “You seemed rather at ease with handling them.”

“We have something… like that.” She took in a deep breath. “Not humanoid, thank Oum, but the same eyes. We’ve been struggling against them for our entire history.”

“Negative’s Soulless.” Syl said. “Flesh that hungers.” Syl stared behind them, then shifted to her less gloomy side. “So, what’s your team like. You said you were their leader?”

“Yeah. Team RWBY, which is an acronym of our names.” They both looked at her. “Yeah. It can be confusing. Ruby of RWBY and all that. But they’re great people! There’s Weiss, who can be a really snobby pain, Blake, who won’t keep a conversation she doesn’t like, and Yang, who is just all kinds of…” Ruby realized precisely what she’d been saying about her team and desperately tried to backtrack “That is, not to say they’re always like that, and Weiss has really improved, but not in the “training your dog” way, just a general… I messed it up, didn’t I?

Kal gave something between a grunt and a chuckle, handing her the finished glove. “Your team, huh?”

Ruby nodded. “Them and JNPR. I took up a sort of “in charge” position after Beacon was attacked, and we’ve set up a sort of operation in Mistral to get ready to fight the people who attacked Beacon, and talking with Professor Lionheart to hunt down the specific targets.”

“And you’ve been handling it well?”

She shrugged. “It’s… it’s not easy. It makes you feel kind of anxious, like, even though things are going well right now, you can’t shake the idea that something bad is going to happen, something terrible you couldn’t see because you’re secretly not good enough or something, and people get hurt because you weren’t fast enough or good enough to warn them in time, and… Well, I’m glad things weren’t as dire when I left, but as bad as being there is, they’ll need me back soon.”

“Well… if anyone knows how to get you back, that would be Shallan or Navani, but… “Kal hesitated, looking as if he were thinking things over. After a moment, he carried on, rhythmic language underlying Syl’s translation. “This kind of thing is different from anything I’ve ever heard. Syl has mentioned other planets on occasion, but nothing like…”

  
“Me?” Kal looked back to meet her eyes. He couldn’t be that much older than Yang and, now that she thought about it, he reminded her of her fiery sister a great deal, but he seemed more… alone. “Well, it’s certainly a shock. Dusts, where I’m from, this would give a lot of scientists headaches. The idea that there’s life like us within reach is downright strange, much less…” He had turned his head back to their pathway, the winding river branching off to the side, then forward, to a distant series of barren hills.

“Hobbleken’s fields.” Kal muttered, Syl shifting from a ribbon of light to her more human appearance, in a new dress. “It can’t be more than two hours from Hearthstone.”

“Then you’ll be home!” Syl chirped, spinning around in her new dress to watch the edge flow.

Kal grunted. He didn’t look so sure that was a good thing. Ruby, too short to pat him on the shoulder, she realized, settled for an arm. She didn’t try to say anything, she had no idea what _to_ say, and instead gave Syl the opportunity. “Don’t worry, Kal,” She said. “Everything will be all right.” An umbrella formed in her hand. “You’ll see.”

Kal set up the hill, afternoon shade hiding his expression.


	3. Murder, Intrigue, and Scholars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dalinar faces something he was not expecting, and someone he could never have imagined.

Dalinar heard the shouts long before he arrived. Tense, sharp orders barked, and an angry response. Alethi and some other, uneven language he couldn’t even place, but whose tone was clear to both sides. Conflict was near.

He left Navani and broke into a run, his blood running cold as he burst through the clearing. Men in Kholin blue and Sadeas green faced off against a single figure, standing over two bodies. One of them was Sadeas. Angerspren pooled around the men, like blood.

“Stand back!” Dalinar shouted at them. The figure-  he couldn’t meet her eyes yet- shouted back at him, mistaking his tone for the same as the others. “Stand back, Damnation, or I’ll knock you back myself!”

“She storming killed him!” the officer in green shouted back. “Cut his storming eye out!” The man’s voice shook with rage, horror, and not a little bit of fear.

And she had. Sadeas… Torol… had dried blood pooled around him from the hole in his face. She had killed a Highprince, a _Shardbearer_ , and she wasn’t even holding the blade.

He finally processed enough of what was happening to give a complete assessment. She was small in stature, wrapped in brown, orange, and violet clothing styled like he’d never seen. Her safehand seemed to have some kind of stylized glove worn tight, but her freehand wearing what looked like a Shardplate gauntlet, and he recognized her frame. She was a fighter, built compact with muscles like an agile boxer: dense in the arms and torso, lighter but still solid in the stomach, and larger, more endurance-based muscles in the legs. Her hair whipped around, crackling and glowing like golden fire, and her eyes burned the same menacing red as the Voidbringers.

If this was some assassin from their enemy, he wouldn’t let her get away easily. He stepped forward, mindful of her stance and lowering into his own. She watched him, then seemed to take the hint. She started chuckling, a breathy, easy sound that indicated either foolishness or-

She punched him, causing him to stumble back at least halfway in shock. _Storms,_ he thought, **_Chasmfiends_** _pack less of a-_

The second blow caught him in the chin, but he managed to turn with it, making it a glancing blow. It still hurt, but he could think straight now. He was rusty. Damnation, he was _old_. He managed to block the next kick, dive back from the following hook, and grab onto a snap kick, using his newfound leverage to drive her into the ground, holding her down in an attempt to subdue her. He got a brief look in her eyes while pinning her, fear and shock being the clearest emotions, even in the middle of the fight. She wrapped her legs around his waist and flipped the both over, him landing on his back and instinctively using his arms to cover his face. The blow broke through his defenses like wood under a shardhammer, and his head slammed against the stone ground. When the world came back into focus, he brought his guard back up.

No blow came. He looked up at her, a new kind of shock and fear on her face as she pulled her safehand back, just as a team of spearmen grabbed her by both arms. She didn’t offer the same resistance, simply staring at Dalinar in shock. She failed to notice, however, the officer behind her, or him drawing back his sword. He jumped to his feet, protest cut off as the sword came down-

And stopped inches from her skin. Sadeas’s officer stared. “That… what-“

“Get him off her!” Dalinar ordered, Bridge Four officers complying by hauling him back, but not without a small struggle.

“Unhand me you darkeyed-“ the officer’s rant died on the word as Dalinar himself grabbed him by the shoulder.

“that blood is dried. He’s been lying there for some time.” He turned to the soldiers “and get her in restraints! I want her alive, so we can make sense of this mess.”

The officer nodded to his own men, then tried to shake off the Bridgemen’s grips. “We were… looking for him when we found her standing there.”

“… _Looking for_?” Dalinar put his hand to his face. His nose had been broken. _Odd. Had that been what made her stop? Was she shocked that such a blow had done that?_ “You lost your own Highprince?”

“The… the tunnels are confusing!” the man said, eyes flicking to his Highprince. Dalinar, briefly, turned and closed the man’s remaining eye, then laid a jacket over the body. “They don’t go natural directions. We got turned about and…”

A man behind him spoke up. “Thought he might’ve returned to another part of the tower! We spent last night searching for him there. Some people said they saw him, but they were wrong and…” the obvious conclusion was left unsaid.

_A Highprince was missing, likely dead and lying in his own gore, for half a day,_ Dalinar thought. He looked back to the unconscious man. _Blood of my fathers._

“That assassin was probably hauling his body around like some kind of sick trophy, or-“

“That blood has been pooling there for hours.” Dalinar picked up the slumped frame, then pointed. “I’m going to put this one in his own cell. Place the Highprince in that side room and send for Ialai, if you haven’t yet. I’ll want to have a better look.”

 

Dalinar knew he was missing something. More than just one thing, really. There were few who knew death better than he did- an effect of being its greatest ally for far too long- and he knew every observation he made was only using half the image he needed.

Sadeas’s bloodied face was easy enough to parse; the eye was punctured and rammed into the socket, with slight bruising above and below. A knife, most likely a side blade, had been rammed through his brain, then he’d been left for fluid and blood to leak out, then dry.

It was a tactic for fighting opponents with full helms. An Alethi method practiced for use on the battlefield. And it had been used by a woman who could not speak Alethi, had no such blade, and was shocked to break a man’s nose, against a helmless Shardbearer. The only blade involved had been the blond man’s, and it was far too long and wide to have made the blow.

“Assassin,” Navani said, clicking her tongue and shaking her head. “And not one of the ones we have in custody.”

Behind him, Adolin and Renarin gathered with Shallan and the few bridgemen not guarding their prisoners. Across was Kalami; the thin, orange-eyed woman was one of his most senior scribes. They’d lost her husband, Teleb, in the fight against the Voidbringers. He hated having her here, interrupting what time she needed to grieve, but she refused to set that time aside. _Perhaps doing this, continuing her duty, is what she uses to keep herself going._

Storms, with Teleb dead, Cael fallen in the Everstorm so close to safety, and Ilamar and Perethom killed by Sadeas’s betrayal at the tower, only Khalm was left of his Highlord officers, and he was healing from a wound he’d kept secret until they were all safe.

Even Elhokar, his own nephew and king, had been wounded by assassins in his palace while armies were fighting in Narak. He’d been recuperating, hidden in the war camps, ever since. Dalinar couldn’t say if he would come to see Sadeas’s body or not.

Whatever the cause, Dalinar lacked officers, and could only explain the room’s other occupants as “emergency substitutes”: Highprince Sebarial and his mistress, Palona. Likeable or not, Sebarial was one of the two highprinces who had bothered responding to Dalinar’s call to march on Narak. He had to rely on someone, and he didn’t trust most of the Highprinces farther than the wind could blow them.

Sebarial, along with Aladar- who had been summoned but not yet arrived- would form the foundation of a new Alethkar. Almighty help them all.

“Well!” said Palona, hands on her hips as she regarded Sadeas’s corpse. “I guess we traded a rather large problem for a much more manageable one, then.”

Everyone in the room turned toward her. “What?” she said. “Don’t tell me you weren’t all thinking it.”

“This is not good, Brightlord,” Kalami said. “If you’re right, and this… Redeye woman didn’t do it, and you defend her…”

“It will only make me look guilty.” He sighed. “Any sign of a Shardblade?”

“No, sir.” One of the bridgemen said. “If it wasn’t this Redeye, whoever killed him probably took it with them.”

Redeye. The word was catching on quick, like a disease. It was possible she’d done nothing wrong but stumbled on a dead man and defended herself. It was possible she or that man knew something they needed.

“Navani,” he said, turning to her. “Would you be able to establish a translation for what this girl speaks, or set up a team of scribes to work through it?” She looked at him, likely having come to the same conclusion before, and shared her answer.

“Going back over what she said, I can’t place any similarities between her language and anything else. It might help if we got a written format to translate to something else, assuming there’s a comparable writing system, but it could take weeks, if not months or even years. A concrete translation might be possible in a few days, but I’ll need to delegate a lot.”

He nodded. “Anyone you think we can spare. She could give us vital information about Urithiru itself.” _And potentially lend a hand. She handed me my own arse in seconds and stopped out of concern. She would be terrifying in Plate and Blade._

Navani nodded then, turning to Shallan, said “I might need your Spren to see if she has her own. She might be a different kind of Radiant, and we could use the Spren to pass the language barrier.” She nodded as well and followed her out. He hoped they would find what they needed.

 

 

Yang paced her cell, occasionally glancing through the open window. This was… a mess. Waking up next to a dead body and an unconscious Jaune, fighting some huge guy trying to arrest her, finding out he didn’t even have an aura, and now… this. She was twitchy, stuffed into a stone room with a sheer drop to God knows how deep. Worse, she was _useless,_ stuck who knows where while Ruby or Weiss or the others were fighting back home, or even worse, stuck somewhere else in this-

A series of knocks caught her attention, followed by the cell door unlocking and sliding open, letting in three guards and two women. _Strange. All the guards have been men, as far as I can tell. And what’s up with their sleeves?_ The shorter woman, with bright red hair and a swirling emblem on her dress, pulled out a notebook and began inscribing things. One of the guards stepped forward with his own notebook and pencil, setting it in front of Yang. “So, this some kind of note-taking session, then. I can do that.” She flashed them a small smile, twirling the pencil in her prosthetic, catching their eyes. Redhead snapped out of it, then started to take notes. A part of Yang smiled at this. “So, any questions on anything?” She gave what she hoped was an inviting expression, arms wide and an open grin on her face.

 

Shallan finished dictating and watched the younger woman. While Navani’s attention was drawn mostly to translation, she couldn’t help but feel curious about her safesleeve. It didn’t hide anything, really, it seemed even more painted on than a glove. “Is it rude to not reply to a question?” Pattern asked from his perch on her dress.

“Somewhat,” she whispered, then flipped to a different page in her book. To Navani, she asked “Do you think the designs on that glove are indicative of something?”

“Possibly,” Navani muttered back, kneeling onto the ground. “I think we should focus on more communicable things, however.” She slid a diamond chip forward. “Sphere.”

The blonde-haired woman watched, then sighed, carried on with a stream of words before watching them, as if for a prompt. “She likes to ramble.” Pattern hummed. “good lies in rambling. Implied.” Navani slid a second sphere, this one an emerald mark, right next to the first, and repeated herself. The woman seemed to get what she was saying, and sat down across from her.

_“Mahr-bl_ ” she responded, tapping both spheres. Without a second glance, she tapped her chest. “Yang”

Navani responded in kind, giving her own name and gesturing for Shallan to do the same. All three women gave each other brief, excited smiles. A good start to communication.


End file.
